The word of
the Lord is faithful
and all his
works to be trusted.
The Lord
loves justice and right
and fills
the earth with his love.
With his
word the heavens were made,
by the
breath of his mouth all the stars.
He spoke;
and they came to be.
He
commanded; they sprang into being.
The Lord
looks on those who revere him,
on those
who hope in his love,
to rescue
their souls from death,
to keep
them alive in famine.
Our soul is
waiting for the Lord.
The Lord is
our help and our shield.
May your
love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place
all our hope in you.
Psalm Ps
32:4-6. 9. 18-20. 22.
When
my children were quite young, I would sit and just look at them during their
sleep in wonder and amazement about the bounty in our lives, and what miracles
these gifts were to us. They were and are unique [I'm sure many of you have encountered my children, so I'm sure you'd agree!].
When
Moses first encountered YHWH he knew little about this God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. Indeed Moses insisted on ‘knowing’ who this God was. ‘I am who I
am,” answered God. Moses was in awe. From this time to the Maccabees, this God
continued to reveal himself, evolving over time (from our human perspective)
into a God of mercy, compassion, rich in kindness and faithfulness. This God
was also called Spirit (Ruah), for he breathed life into his creation and the
wind itself brought good fortune and good news.
For
we Christians, a deeper revelation becomes evident in Jesus’ relationship to
his God whom he calls Abba, Father. The early apostles, certainly the writers
of Matthew’s Gospel and Paul were using a liturgical Trinitarian formula (most
specifically Matthew’s injunction that the disciples must baptise ‘in the name
of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’). The doctrine was then defined by
early general councils of the Christian church. The Council of Nicaea in 325
and the Council of Constantinople in 381 declared that the Son is of the same
essence as the Father, and that the three Persons are one God. Differences
still remain in the eastern and western churches. In the west, theologians such
as Anselm and Thomas Aquinas continued to refine this teaching. Since this
medieval work there have been few further developments, though today’s thinkers
are attempting to link this teaching with the daily lives of the faithful.
For
many the Trinity is a most difficult idea to grasp, and it is often dismissed
as a mystery to which only the likes of theologians can access. Perhaps we need
a new set of paradigms, or new metaphors to help us digest and understand. Can
I suggest, however, that a ‘Moses’ experience, meeting God face to face – in
relationship, will always be at the core of this understanding? When we meet
God in our prayer, in our liturgy, and through our community and communion, we
place ourselves before him saying, ‘Lord, here I am, I come to do your will.’
His response is, ‘I am your God, I am who I am (YHWH), come to me.’ We are
his children and his creatures, it is his life that is breathed into us, and I
have no doubt that he looks at us in the same way I looked at my young
children, with wonder and amazement. We too are mysteries - unique and
miraculous.
Today
Sunday was Trinity Sunday.
Peter
Douglas
HEAD
OF SCHOOL SERVICES, NORTH
[Notes
on Rublev's icon of the Trinity above]
Trinity
in this Russian Orthodox icon originating from the 14th century.
I encourage you to look at this Trinity icon – what you'll see is an image
inspired by the Abraham story of the 3 visitors of God whom he welcomed.
The 3 figures in the icon are depicted as angels seated at an altar
table. They have identical faces but their postures and clothing differ
as though we are looking at the same figure shown in three different
ways. But it is the way in which the figures relate to one another which
is so compelling. The father looks to the son gesturing toward this Word made
flesh, Christ gazes back at the Father but points to the Spirit, and the Spirit
opens up the circle to receive the viewer. Between the Spirit and
the Father in the Trinity icon is an open space at the table in which the
viewer is brought to sit in communion with the God head. Here we see an
image of God’s relational circle into which we are welcomed. The Father sends
the Son the son sends the Spirit and the Spirit welcomes us to the table.
It is a lush image of how God relates to God’s self and to us.
Religionless Christianity by Richard Rohr
Most religious searches
begin with one massive misperception. People tend to start by making a very
unfortunate, yet understandable, division between the sacred and the profane
worlds. Early stage religion focuses on identifying sacred places, sacred time,
and seemingly sacred actions that then leaves the overwhelming majority of life
unsacred. People are told to look for God in certain special places and in
particular events--usually, it seems, ones controlled by the clergy. Perhaps
this is related to the clergy's need for job security, which is only natural.
Early stage religion has limited the search for God to a very small field and
thus it is largely ineffective--unless people keep seeing and knowing at larger
levels.
In Franciscan (and true
Christian) mysticism, there is finally no distinction between sacred and
profane. The whole universe and all events are sacred (doorways to the divine)
for those who know how to see. In other words, everything that happens is
potentially sacred if you allow it to be. Our job as humans is to make
admiration of reality and adoration of God fully conscious and intentional.
Then everything is a prayer and an act of adoration. As the French friar Eloi
Leclerc beautifully paraphrased Francis, "If we but knew how to adore, we
could travel through the world with the tranquility of the great rivers. But
only if we know how to adore."
For those who have
learned how to see fully, everything--absolutely everything--is
"spiritual." This eventually and ironically leads to what the
Lutheran mystic Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) called "religionless
Christianity." Bonhoeffer saw that many people were moving beyond the
scaffolding of religion to the underlying and deeper Christian experience
itself. Once we can accept that God is in all situations, and that God can and
will use even bad situations for good, then everything and everywhere becomes
an occasion for good and an encounter with God.
God's plan is so perfect
that even sin, tragedy, and painful deaths are used to bring us to divine
union, just as the cross was meant to reveal. God wisely makes the problem
itself part of the solution. It is all a matter of learning how to see rightly,
fully, and therefore truthfully. Recently, I watched a family-made video of a
dear teenage daughter's last moments dying from cancer, as she lovingly said
good-bye. The family was ecstatic with tears and joy, through profound faith
and hope in eternal life and infinite love. This experience, standing on the
threshold of death with their loved one, likely did more long-lasting good for
that family than years of formal religious education. I know that to be true
from many personal experiences. The result is "religionless
Christianity," which ironically might be the most religious of all.
Adapted
from Franciscan Mysticism: I Am that which I Am Seeking,
disc
1 (CD, MP3 download), and Eager to Love:
The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, pp. 10-11
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